The “after seventeenth century modernity spectaculum”
The global development in the sense of modernization as per seventeenth century has given the world no more than decaying senses which has been accompanied by perverted human roles, with concentration of hatred and aversion between human kind and between them and the environment.
The known good deeds were integrated into intensive definitions incorporated in evil, human contempt, vile as well as inconsiderable. Despite this, the irony is that what used to be good became shunned while the scramble of the vices introduce, became significantly rampant. Long-living practices began to be viewed as being mundane and the short-lived practices accompanied by threats and fears completely replaced the good-old world.
As the sense of independent and development sunk in peoples mind, the aspect of communism disintegrated and in its place individualism and the sense of “I” was adopted that is embraced world-wide. As a result, man’s life was affected, as the bond between people gradually melted and in its place a trench evolved.
This has put man’s life in a solitary situation, bringing with it massive poverty, nasty living style, brutish undertakings whose combination has shortened the life of human being. This has made the man race to indulge into daily conflicting activities, pertaining competition, diffidence and glory as state of nature. This has created one of man’s rule which entails that Thomas Hobbes (215) states that “every man has to endeavor peace, as far as he has hopes for obtaining it. If he cannot obtain it, he can use all helps and advantage of war.”
In addition, human beings have been assumed as having right of everything even to one another’s body. What does this bring to the race of human being? It only gives a room to the stronger in having their ways right which means that the life of the majority-minorities depend on the mercy of the few powerful. In other words, it became the survival for the fittest. This has contributed to excessive injustice between individuals as well as in the governmental law bodies (Hobbes, 113)
Moreover, the introduced civil society had brought separation of power that initially was not there. This has been met by rejection from individual and parties affected by this power division. Consequently, civil war has been a major occurrence in many nations as they tend to fight against the abuse of power by the acting government or other nations that creates an effect or pressure to them.
This has expanded gaps existing between parties and every party is seeking its own way of dealing with any threat that can be imposed to it by the other parties. However, instead of this being a channel of peace and comfort within the societies involved, fear concerning the massive destructing weapons manufactured by the name of defense, such as atomic weapons, has taken over the climate and the element of peace has scrambled off (Hobbes p.131).
In addition, people’s perspectives have been readjusted and believe that people can’t function without a powerful body over them, which creates fear and suppression had settled in people minds, and as a result oppression and dictatorship has based people’s ways of living (Machiavelli, 57).
Religious perspective has also been altered. For instance, the scripture has been reinterpreted in a materialistic assumption. For example, Hobbes has tried to bring out the contradiction concerning incorporeal entities, claiming that both Heaven and Hell were in this world, as well as opposing some of sync which are incorporated in church teachings. Thus, morality has acquired a definition as an “acceptable cruel action”, which involves decisiveness and swiftness in dealing with material matters.
For instance, according to Niccolo Machiavelli, it is ironically that good result comes out of evil actions. In addition, the philosophy in the middle age was primarily based on Christian philosophy. However, different lines of philosophical argument came up, with one bringing a sense of nationalism threatening the position of church-men, by introducing a powerful secular based perspective.
The other one widely secularized the knowledge reducing the control of ecclesiastical elite and in its place introducing, what Descartes (102) describes as “philosophical classics of Greece and Rome.” As time goes by, the power of a single religious authority was gradually effaced giving power of vernacular tongues by the influence of protestant ethics which resulted to philosophers becoming less recognized in their ecclesiastical hierarchy but instead their recognition was shifted to their national origin (Descartes, 77-8).
In studying the way people live, Machiavelli (312) agrees that the way people lived traditionally was a true way of living. Everyone was required to live virtuously and this was clearly observed. However, living virtuously didn’t mean that people could live happily. The adaptation to the modernized ways pushed the leader to try making people to both fear them as well as love them.
But since these two factors couldn’t go hand in hand, they saw that significant security would be obtained in making people to fear them. This was associated with suspicious from other opposing parties concerning any acts of insecurities that can be thrown toward the leader in question. As a result, any action to suppress the other party or individual was seen as a gateway to remain feared and recognized (Rousseau, 37).
According to Rousseau (87), civil society has introduced inequalities in human kind which mostly concerning moral inequality, whose relation is in power and wealth. This has been attributed to man’s act of straying out of the natural state and stepping in his own cocoon of individual need and desire. As a result, those who first took the advantage of people’s naivety and grabbed shares of the available properties moved up the ladder where they perpetrate the weak so that they can maintain their wealth and power.
This was the beginning of evil, where unlike the early man who was strong, fast and in prime condition and who only killed for his self prevention, the civil man started using all means, including killing his fellow to maintain what he has obtained. (Rousseau, 62).
In conclusion, modernization has accompanied its countable good aspect with uncountable vices which has greatly eroded natural state of human being’s moral in relation to other and environment and in place redefined these moral in a self centered perspective, attributed with a lot of evils.
Works Cited
Descartes, Rene. The principal of philosophy. Kessinger Publishing, 2004. Print.
Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. Johnston: Norton, 1997. Print.
Machiavelli, Niccolo. The prince and the discourses. Modern library, 1950. Print.
Rousseau, Jean. Discourse on the origin of Inequality. Filiquarian Publishing, LLC., 2007. Print.